


After Detention

by loulou268



Series: Derry Girls - Erin and James - Scenes We Didn't See - Season 1 [1]
Category: Derry Girls (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 21:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18533482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loulou268/pseuds/loulou268
Summary: Scenes We Didn't See: After Detention.It was the first moment Erin and James had spoken, just the two of them. It was short, but it brought them closer.





	After Detention

They were all around Michelle and James to do their school work, the first moment of peace and normality since the detention of hell. 

Michelle was filling the air with an endless stream of talk, the occasional strange comment from Orla arose too, and Claire’s panicking voice declaring her, or all of them, doomed. The five of them were spread all around Michelle’s bedroom; Michelle on her bed cross-legged with her book open but not even giving it a glance (it was more of a prop for Michelle, just in case her Ma walked in), Orla lounged in a chair, one leg over on arm and her head resting on the other with a book placed on her lap and a pen dangling from her fingers. She stared up at the ceiling blankly. Claire was surrounded by mad revision scrawling’s on random pieces of paper that scattered around her with an explosion of pens and highlighters and about five different books all opened and covered in the same mad hurried writings. Erin and James, the pair of them, were perhaps the only normal looking when it was revising. Both sat on the floor cross-legged, or sometimes stretching their legs out if they got cramps in them, with a black pen in one hand and a neat selection of highlighters for colour coding (a trick James picked up from Erin, in fact – she did alright in classes, he concluded, so he could might be able to learn a thing or two from her), they propped their notebooks on their laps, resting them on cushions so to have a sturdier writing surface, and their books on the floor next to them, neatly decorated with sticky-notes. They were prepared. They were focused. Unlike the others, they were silent.

“I’m gonna grab a drink,” Erin said standing up. It was the first thing she said since she sat down. “Any of ye want some ’ing.” A chorus of ‘No’s’ filled the air but James also stood.

“I’ll grab one myself,” he said quietly. Not long after meeting, Erin had decided that James was a soft-spoken lad, nothing like the Derry boys she knew growing up. It must be an English thing. The quietness didn’t bother her, being friends with loud-mouth Michelle, panicking Claire and Orla, who was, well, Orla, she relished in a little bit of quietness from time to time. “I need to stretch my legs.”

“Aye,” Erin nodded and gestured for him to follow her.

The pair of them walked downstairs and into the kitchen, it was empty as Michelle’s Ma and Pa were working so they had full access to anything they wanted. Erin quickly opened a cupboard and grabbed herself a biscuit, pausing for a second before grabbing a second and handing it to James. He hesitated for a second. 

“Are you sure this is alright?”

“They won’t notice one or two missings,” Erin told him, “they’ve got Michelle for their wain, they mainly check their booze is still there.” She then moved to the glasses shelf and took two of them down, also passing one to James.

“Oh, that makes sense now…”

“What does?”

“I saw Auntie Deirdre looking in my wardrobe.”

“Michelle hasn’t hidden it in there since we were fourteen.” She explained as she filled her glass up, immediately taking a small sip. James took place at the sink and filled his glass up, slowly so they could talk a little longer.

“So,” he began, letting Erin know the subject was changing. “Have your parents let up about the whole… dead Nun thing?”

“A bit…” Erin explained. “You?”

“God no,” James chuckled a little, “You were only sneaking out a window, I was…”

“Pissing in a bin,” Erin finished for him with a small smile. It wasn't a cruel, mocking smile, it was a fond, friendly one which told him the two of them were on good terms with one another. James glass was filled and he turned the tap off, but neither of them made a point of moving, in fact, Erin leaned against the wall and James against the counter.

“Yeah…” He gave her an apologetic look, “I’m sorry by the way, probably not the best first impression I could’ve made on Michelle’s friends… I wanted you lot to like me.”

“Could’ve been worse,” Erin shrugged, “could have needed a crap.” James laughed a little. “Anyway, you should be alright in the girls – just don’t try and look for any girls with their knickers down and you’ll be grand.”

“Thanks…” James looked down for a second, “I would have agreed with you in Sister Michael’s office, about her being nearly ninety-eight, but I didn’t want to get into any more trouble…”

“Ah, it’s alright,” Erin waved it off. “I’m sorry, bout ye Ma. Shit way to find she left.”

“It’s alright, Erin,” James smiled tightly, “it happened, nothing to be done about it.”

“If ye ever need to talk, James…” Erin felt awkward about trying to offer James comfort, but the look on his face when he thought about his Ma made her ache inside. She loved her Ma, regardless, and the thought of being in James shoes killed her. James didn’t get enough credit for holding up so well.

“I know, thanks,” he gave her a wide grin. A silence went over them for a minute, a nice comfortable silence, as they quietly sipped their drinks. Neither of them wanted to break the silence or move, but they knew they had to, so James spoke up.

“We should… get back up there,” he mumbled, “before the others wonder what’s happening.”

“Aye.”

And so, reluctantly, Erin and James broke away from the kitchen and went upstairs, returning to Michelle’s room and their spots on the floor. The pair sat down closer to each other in comfortable silence. The other three hadn’t seemed to have noticed they had taken longer than needed to get glasses of water, or that the two of them were physically closer. Michelle still spoke an endless stream of nonsense, Orla still randomly perked up and made an odd comment here and there, Claire still panicked and declared their evitable academic doom, but Erin and James took no notice, they just sat in comfortable silence, occasionally looking and smiling at each other.

Both could tell they were going to be good friends.

 _Even if he is English_ , Erin thought.


End file.
